“I watched quite a bit and in the United States we call it soccer, and I watched quite a bit of it and I watched the entire final and the semi-finals, and they were really spectacular games, but it was beautifully done. So congratulations on that,” Trump said before the two leaders went behind closed doors.

The World Cup concluded in Moscow on Sunday with a grandiose final game at Luzhniki Stadium which saw the French team beating Croatia 4-2 to claim their first world crown since 1998.

The global football event which attracted millions of fans from around the globe went off without any serious incidents - destroying all the pre-tournament fears touted by Western media that had portrayed Russia as a homophobic and racist state.